


a family of his own

by interstellarbeams



Series: their journey [2]
Category: Aladdin (2019)
Genre: F/M, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Labor and Delivery, Pregnancy, having a baby, supportive husband
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 20:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20395942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interstellarbeams/pseuds/interstellarbeams
Summary: Aladdin promised his pregnant wife he wouldn’t leave her alone but somehow found himself on the other side of a closed door.





	a family of his own

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Katie for working on this while on a plane home from Chicago, you’re the best beta EVER! 
> 
> This is the baby fic that I’ve been dying to post, so glad to finally be able to share the FEELS. 
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated! <3

The bright morning sun left a pattern of concentric shadows on the pale floors and tapestry-covered walls, but Aladdin’s focus wasn’t on his surroundings, no matter how grand and beautiful they were.

He shoved his hair out of his face with an anxious hand as he paced. His footsteps echoed down the long hallway, but he barely heard it, his brain churning with too many thoughts like an overflowing wine sink on a festival day. 

Sweat trickled down the back of his neck then leaked past shoulders, tense with pent up nervous energy. His stomach churned and he felt unprepared, worry warring with excitement. 

Rajah, who usually did the impatient pacing, especially at dinner time, sat just beyond the door watching him with yellow eyes, his tail lazily twitching against the gleaming floor. 

He kept his hands firmly clasped in front of him, his fingers aching from the strength of his own grasp, as he mumbled under his breath. His pacing as never ending as his tumbling thoughts.

“Hey, kid, it’ll be OK. This kind of thing happens all the time. Every day of the year in fact, all over the world. You can relax.” Genie stepped up to him and placed his hands on Aladdin’s shoulder, but he turned away abruptly.

“How can I relax when I can’t be with her? They won’t even let me see her.” He sighed, dropping his head into his hands as he collapsed into a conveniently placed chair. 

Aladdin couldn’t see anything but Genie’s feet, but he could feel the other man’s need to speak even if it was just to reassure him that everything would be OK. 

“Look, kid, I get it. You love her. Of course you do, she’s your wife, but these things … they’re, well … a woman’s business and trust me, you do _not_ want to be in there.”

“I don’t care about that. I just — I can’t make sure she’s OK with this — ” Aladdin thrust his hand toward the large set of doors between him and Jasmine, “this door between us. I’m her husband. Why can’t I just be in there?”

Genie crossed his arms against his chest, looking down at Aladdin, who rested his forearms on the tops of his thighs and stared without seeing at the wall across from him. 

“Dalia’s with her. All the women who are with her love her and will take good care of her. She’ll be fine.” 

“But they’re not _me_. I’m her husband. I should be with her. End of story.”

Genie took a step back, eyeing him with concern, but Aladdin didn’t have time for his friend’s worried glances. He pushed himself up from the chair and went back to pacing.

Genie sighed dramatically but didn’t speak again. He took the chair that Aladdin had just vacated and eyed Rajah warily. The large cat wasn’t a fan of many people, Jasmine and Aladdin being the exception. They were his people and everyone else was just an irritation. Genie just hoped he wasn’t that irritant today. 

Rajah licked his chops, eyes slitting in the bright sunshine before he finally laid down and closed his eyes as he rested his large head on his paws. 

Jasmine’s labor had started early that morning, the newly rising sun barely lighting the sky a violet gray when she had grasped Aladdin’s arm, waking him from a dead sleep with a hand like a vise as she gasped in pain. 

To be honest, Aladdin wasn’t sure how he had come to be escorted out of his wife’s chambers so quickly, the door slammed in his face before he could utter a single protest. Jasmine’s face, tense with pain, was the last glimpse he’d had of her and that was many hours ago. 

Dalia had shown up almost immediately afterward, Genie in tow, and had literally shoved Rajah out the door before it slammed again, the faintest sound of multiple voices trickling out before being cut off abruptly by the thick door. 

His pacing had started after that and Genie’s nonchalance, which was his friend’s attempt to ease Aladdin’s anxiety, had only served to annoy him further.

Aladdin didn’t think he was being unreasonable. They were married, they were partners and best friends, they shared a life and the hope for their arriving child. He should be with her because she needed him. Not that he could do anything about her pain or the trials that she was going through, but he could support her and encourage her. The thought of her being frightened without him there to reassure her made him want to curse in anger and he normally didn’t have much of a temper. 

Jasmine had been worried at first that she wouldn’t be as accomplished in her role as sultan when she became pregnant. That the delegates and other men that she dealt with on a day-to-day basis would see her as weak because of her “fragile condition,” but it had in fact worked in her favor. The men who had experienced their own wives’ mood swings had been careful not to upset her and those men who had no experience with pregnant women had been too afraid to try and work against her. 

Aladdin hadn’t known what to expect himself. He had never been around a pregnant woman for any amount of time. He had been an only child when his parents had passed away and he didn’t have any close relatives and therefore no potential cousins. 

It had surprised him to find his wife, who usually stayed up to all hours poring over books and scrolls and writing notes with her favorite quill pen, asleep in their bed before the sun had even started its descent beyond the horizon. 

Her mood swings were so varied — angry one second then crying the next — that he didn’t know whether to attempt to console her or to keep his distance at any given moment. But he didn’t care. She could have chucked a Ming Dynasty vase at his head and he would have ducked and kept on admiring her. 

She was even more beautiful to him, her long dark hair more lustrous, her eyes brighter despite the lack of sleep in the later stages of her pregnancy, her cheeks rounder, but he loved her anyway because she was carrying their child and his respect for her grew more and more each day.

She revealed her fears and vulnerabilities to him as they lay in bed at night once she couldn’t sleep anymore despite her fatigue. How she missed her mother’s guidance despite the women that surrounded her on a daily basis and how she craved the presence of her dearest friend, Dalia, who was traveling the world with her new husband. He had reassured her every time she spoke of her fear of the pain that she knew would come when she birthed their child, that he wouldn’t let her be alone and yet, he had let her handmaidens, nurses and midwife push him from the room. He felt disgusted with himself. 

Aladdin sighed gustily, guilt replacing the earlier excitement. Rajah opened his eyes to glance up at him before he was turning and pacing back the other direction, his loose tunic flaring out behind him. 

He knew Genie wanted to say something else, but he really wasn’t in the mood for it so he pinned him with a glare when he next turned to see him opening his mouth to speak.

The air was suddenly split by a scream and Aladdin didn’t even think before he burst through the door and made his way to his wife’s side, ignoring the noises of protest from the group of women who surrounded her.

Dalia’s disapproving glare softened at the gasp of relief coming from her best friend at the sight of her husband. It wasn’t what was done, but neither was a woman as sultan and they had already turned that tradition on its head, _so why not this?_

Aladdin didn’t know what to say, the words of comfort that he would normally offer stuck in his throat at the sight of his wife in such distress, but luckily he had more than words so he quickly grasped her hand and squeezed. The answering squeeze of her fingers was much stronger than his and he winced but he didn’t let go as she tossed her head back on the pillow as another pain traveled through her. 

“It’s OK,” he finally managed to say as he grabbed a nearby cloth and wiped her sweaty forehead. Dropping the cloth to the bed beside her, he stroked a thumb across her cheek. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

The mumbling of multiple voices and concerned hums of the midwife and her assistant registered in his ears and he knew Jasmine was afraid. Her dark eyes glanced between him and Dalia who stood to the other side of the bed, a steaming bowl of water in her hands, wearing an answering concerned frown. 

“I’m scared,” she finally managed to whisper between contractions, her dark hair tumbling across one shoulder and sticking to the side of her neck. He lifted it away from her and quickly braided it and pulling the pin from the back of her head he secured the end, in hopes of making her more comfortable.

“I know. Me, too.” He smiled down at her and her eyes softened slightly as he pulled her attention back to him, or as much as he could in the stifling, bustling room. 

His hand cramped as she squeezed it again, a sharp grunt and shorter breath pressed out between her lips as she strained against the pressure. 

“It hurts,” she whimpered once her body relaxed against the pillows. 

“I know. I’m sorry.” He wanted more than anything to take the pain from her, but that was a burden that he couldn’t bear no matter how much it pained him to see her struggle. “But just think, when all this is over we'll have our baby. _Ours_.”

Jasmine smiled faintly, tears trembling at the corners of her eyes as he reached over to blot at the sweat that continued to dampen her forehead, temples and neck.

“You’re strong. I believe in you. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me and Agrabah would be less well-off without you as their sultan. You can do this. You can do anything and you’re going to be an amazing mother.”

“Not as good as the father you will be. Our child will be so lucky to have you as their father. You will never let them doubt themselves …” She trailed off, gasping as another wave of pain hit her but she wasn’t going to be distracted. “You will always love them and you will attempt to move mountains for them, just as you have for me.”

Aladdin felt tears well up in his eyes but he couldn’t look away from her beautiful face and he bent to kiss her forehead softly. 

“I love you,” he whispered, ignoring the multiple pairs of eyes he could feel on him. All that mattered was his wife and the little life that she was about to bring into the world. 

“I love you, too.” Tears did stream from her eyes then, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the pain or the emotions coursing through her.

“Jasmine, sweetheart,” Dalia’s familiar voice called her as she sat down on the other side of the bed and reached for her other hand and Aladdin felt his heart drop into his stomach, concern for their child sending a chill down his spine. 

“Don’t worry.” Dalia’s voice changed suddenly, her dry tone turning warm. “I only meant to comfort you. I don’t have bad news or anything.”

Aladdin wanted to reach across the space between them and shake her for scaring him so thoroughly but he didn’t have time to worry about that because Jasmine was ready to push.

———

The squalling cry of their baby seemed to stop his heart and start it all over again in a split second and Aladdin was at once elated and frightened that this new life had completely altered his own already. His anxiousness and hope to see their child for the first time was dashed as they lifted the wrapped bundle and carried it to the corner of the room where a wash basin had been prepared.

Jasmine’s sigh of relief pulled him back to her and he smoothed her hair back from her forehead, the tendrils curling in the heat of the room. A handmaiden, who’s name he wasn’t familiar with, came to stand next to him and he helped her to fluff the pillows behind his wife so that she could sit up more comfortably. 

The soiled sheets were whisked away and new ones placed over top of Jasmine as she smiled up at him, her fingers resting comfortably within his.

The baby continued to cry, a loud protest against the new situation he or she was in, and then Dalia was there beside them once again, the crying bundle in her arms being placed into his wife’s waiting arms. 

“You have a healthy and beautiful princess, my sultan, Prince Consort,” she said before she left them alone with their child for the first time. 

His gaze immediately went to the red, squalling baby whose dark, curling hair tufted over the top of the blanket. He tentatively rubbed a finger along her cheek and she quieted almost instantly. His heart felt like it floated up through the ceiling and onward toward the heavens as he continued to stroke the incredibly soft skin of the newborn's cheek.

Jasmine chuckled quietly, pressing a kiss to the tiny creature’s forehead, “So you’re going to be a daddy’s girl already, huh?” 

“That’s OK,” she hummed as he continued to stare at the baby, _their_ baby. “He’s my favorite too.”

Aladdin couldn’t believe how lucky he was. A few years ago, his only companion had been a capuchin monkey and now he had good friends, a wife, a father-in-law and now a child of his own. A _family_ to call his own. He hardly knew what to do with himself.

The doorway creaked as Dalia opened it, peeking her head out she called her husband. He looked a little uncomfortable at first, walking into the sultan’s chamber like he belonged there, but then his eyes landed on the small family huddled together on the bed and he smiled. 

“Congrats, kid, your majesty,” Genie said as he pressed his hands to the tops of Aladdin’s shoulders while Jasmine smiled at him, rolling her eyes at his continued use of her formal title. 

Dalia shook her head at her husband before leaning over and kissing her friend’s cheek. “You did wonderfully. Congratulations. She’s beautiful, just like her mother.”

Jasmine’s quiet _thank you_ and answering smile were interrupted by the loud clanging of bells that rang out through the city. Cheering and voices lifted in song could be heard floating in through the open-air balcony. The baby frowned at the sound, her eyebrows furrowing and her lips pouting like she was going to cry again. Jasmine rocked her, shushing her and rubbing her back like she had been doing the same for years.

Aladdin’s heart warmed even more at the sound of the people of Agrabah, his people, celebrating at the birth of his child. It felt not only congratulatory, but left him with a feeling of belonging and acceptance that he never would have expected when he had been orphaned so many years ago.

“With that kind of celebration, I think the princess deserves a name,” Genie offered and with a clap on Aladdin’s back they left the room. 

“Did we even speak of any names?” Jasmine asked and he lifted his eyes from the baby to focus on her.

“I don’t think so. How could we have forgotten?” Aladdin felt like a bit of an ass for not even considering it, but with all of the uproar with Jasmine’s pregnancy and the rigors of her day-to-day ruling they hadn’t had much time to think of what their child would be called.

Rajah padded into the room then, Jasmine’s father following close beside. The former sultan oohed and aahed over the small bundle, chucking her under the chin while she squirmed in her blanket. She cried again when Aladdin turned to stroke a hand across the top of the large cat’s head but quieted down when he reached for her and stood to walk the room with her in his arms.

He stepped onto the balcony, watching the sun as it set and allowing Jasmine a moment to rest as she spoke with her doting father.

The stars slowly started to wink in the darkening sky and Aladdin traced a finger over the small shell of the baby’s ear. Her little lips were as red as rosebuds and the dark fan of her eyelashes stood out against the rounded curve of her cheeks. The beautiful night sky was no match for the little wonder he held in his arms, his daughter.

“Najma,” he spoke as he settled back on the edge of the bed and handed her over to her mother.

“Najma. It means star,” Jasmine said as she turned her head, to gaze at the dark expanse of night sky sparkling with the celestial beings. “Najma _Devika_, after my mother.” She paused for a moment, tucking the edge of the blanket around the baby as she nursed. 

“It reminds me of our magic carpet ride, with all the stars shining around us. I felt like I could touch the clouds. That’s how you made me feel. Still do.” Jasmine lifted her head staring right into his eyes. “I think it’s perfect.” 

“Me, too. Just like our precious little girl.”

“Thank you. For being here like you said you would.” 

“Of course. You’re my wife and I love you. I would do anything for you and for her.” 

He leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead again, but she grabbed ahold of his head and brought it down to press her lips against his. Najma was pressed in between them but didn’t cry like he expected her to as they kissed. The warm, enclosed space and her mother’s heartbeat probably felt more familiar than anything that she had felt since birth.

Jasmine sighed and laid back against the pillows, the exertion of the day and all the excitement finally catching up with her. The baby’s fist waved as she suckled, but after a moment her fingers relaxed against her mother’s breast. Jasmine lifted her up and Aladdin took her sleeping form before settling into the chair next to the bed.

A nurse came to take Najma after a few minutes, but he waved her away as he looked down at the sleeping baby. He pressed a soft kiss to her tiny head, watching her forehead furrow before her face smoothed and she went back to sleep. He never wanted to let his little star go and for right now, he would keep her in his arms and in his heart, forever.


End file.
